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USPS News: Philatelic Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 31, 2001
Stamp Release No. 01-062
Postal Service To Honor Physicist Enrico Fermi On 100th Anniversary Of His Birth
WASHINGTON — Enrico Fermi, one of the preeminent physicists of the atomic age, will be honored by the U.S. Postal Service when a new commemorative postage stamp is issued at the University of Chicago on Sept. 29, 2001.
The first day ceremony will be held on campus at 9:30 a.m. in the Cloister Club inside historic Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St. The ceremony will be free and open to the public. The university will also be hosting a symposium that day in Fermi's honor.
"The Enrico Fermi stamp is a wonderful example of how commemorative stamps bring to the forefront the greatest achievers and achievements in American history," said Einar V. Dyhrkopp, member of the presidentially appointed Postal Service Board of Governors, who will dedicate the stamp.
The Enrico Fermi stamp commemorates the centenary of his birth on Sept. 29, 1901, in Rome, Italy. Fermi became a naturalized U.S. citizen on July 11, 1944.
Fermi received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pisa in 1922. From 1927 to 1938, he taught theoretical physics at the University of Rome. In 1934, while experimenting with neutron bombardment of uranium, Fermi — without realizing it at the time — became the first physicist to split the atom.
For his discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons, Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. After accepting the prize in Stockholm, Fermi immigrated to the U.S. with his wife, Laura — who was Jewish — and their two children, in order to escape anti-Semitic persecution in Italy.
In 1939 Fermi joined the faculty at Columbia University, where he taught physics and began conducting experiments with uranium in an attempt to create a controlled nuclear chain reaction. In January 1942 his work was transferred to the University of Chicago, where he supervised the design and assembly of the first nuclear reactor as part of the secret Manhattan Project (code name for the coordinated U.S. effort to produce the atomic bomb during World War II).
On Dec. 2, 1942, Fermi and his team made history when they achieved the first controlled and self-sustaining man-made nuclear chain reaction. Their success was fundamental to the production of plutonium and, thereafter, the actual construction of the atomic bomb became the primary focus of the Manhattan Project. In September 1944, Fermi moved to Los Alamos, N.M., to assist in directing the project's scientific team there. He was present when the first atomic bomb was tested in the desert near Alamogordo on July 16, 1945.
At the end of the war, Fermi accepted an invitation to teach physics at the University of Chicago's new Institute for Nuclear Studies. There he turned his attention to high-energy physics and helped develop the synchrocyclotron, which at the time was the largest particle accelerator, or atom smasher, in the world.
On Nov. 16, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower and the Atomic Energy Commission gave Fermi an award for his "lifetime of accomplishments in physics and, in particular, for the development of atomic energy." He died of cancer on Nov. 28, 1954.
In 1955 the Institute for Nuclear Studies was renamed the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies in his memory. The name was shortened to the Enrico Fermi Institute in 1968. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Ill., was also named in Fermi's memory, as was the element fermium. The prestigious Enrico Fermi Award — the U.S. Government's oldest science and technology award — was established in 1956 as a memorial to the brilliant scientist.
Designed by Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Ariz., the stamp features a colorized black-and-white photograph of Fermi and a model of the carbon atom. The photograph was taken on March 26, 1948, when Fermi was a professor at the University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies. Graphite, a form of carbon, was used to slow down the neutrons in the first nuclear reactor.
To see the Enrico Fermi stamp, and other 2001 commemorative stamps, visit the Collector's Corner in the Postal Store at the Postal Service Web site at www.usps.com.
Current U.S. stamps, as well as a free comprehensive catalog, are available toll free by calling 1 800 STAMP-24. A selection of new stamps and other philatelic items are also available online at the Postal Store.
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TECHNICAL DETAILS
Issue: Enrico Fermi
Item Number: 451500
Denomination & Type of Issue: 34-cent commemorative
Format: Pane of 20 (1 design)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: September 29, 2001, Chicago, IL 60637
Photograph: Courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives
Designer: Richard Sheaff, Scottsdale, AZ
Engraver: N/A
Art Director: Richard Sheaff, Scottsdale, AZ
Typographer: Richard Sheaff, Scottsdale, AZ
Modeler: Joseph Sheeran
Manufacturing Process: Offset/Microprint "USPS"
Printer: Sterling Sommer
Printed at: Tonawanda, NY
Press Type: Akiyama, 628
Stamps per Pane: 20
Print Quantity: 30 million stamps
Paper Type: Prephosphored,Type II
Gum Type: Water-activated
Processed at: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.
Colors: Black, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta
Stamp Orientation: Vertical
Image Area (w x h): 0.84 x 1.40 in./21.336 x 35.56 mm
Overall Size (w x h): 0.99 x 1.56 in./25.171 x 39.624 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 5.94 x 7.135 in./150.876 x 181.229 mm
Plate Size: 180 stamps per revolution
Plate Numbers: "P" followed by four (4) single digits
Marginal Markings: © 2000 USPS • Price • Plate Numbers • Plate Position Diagram • Barcodes • Copyright Text
Catalog Item Number(s): 451520 Block of 4 — $1.36
451530 Block of 10 — $3.40
451540 Full Pane — $6.80
451561 First Day Cover — $0.55
HOW TO ORDER THE FIRST DAY OF ISSUE POSTMARK
Customers have 30 days to obtain the first day of issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office, by telephone at 1 800 STAMP-24, and at the Postal Store Web www.usps.com. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:
ENRICO FERMI COMMEMORATIVE STAMP
POSTMASTER
433 W HARRISON ST FL 9
CHICAGO IL 60607-9991
After applying the first day of issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark. All orders must be postmarked by October 29, 2001.
Stamp Fulfillment Services also offers first day covers for new stamp issues and postal stationery items postmarked with the official first day of issue cancellation. Each item has an individual catalog number and is offered in the quarterly "USA Philatelic" catalog. Customers may request a free catalog by telephoning 1 800 STAMP-24 or writing to:
INFORMATION FULFILLMENT
DEPT 6270
US POSTAL SERVICE
PO BOX 219014
KANSAS CITY MO 64121-9014
First day covers remain on sale for at least 1 year after the stamp's issuance.
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For 226 years, the United States Postal Service has been the gateway to the household, binding friends, families and neighbors together. It is an independent federal agency that handles 46 percent of the world's mail volume, with annual revenues of $65 billion. The Postal Service is not funded with taxpayer dollars, but derives its revenues solely from the sale of postage and other products and services it provides. Through its unrivaled service network, the Postal Service delivers money, messages and merchandise daily to 135 million addresses, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world.
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